Vision care is an ongoing journey that you undertake with your optometrist starting with consistent eye exams to ensure there aren’t any potential issues that could affect your eyes and vision.
Visual aides such as glasses are essential to help maintain clear vision throughout your busy day.
But can wearing the wrong glasses damage your eyes? Let’s explore the importance of wearing glasses that meet your visual needs and how an updated prescription is crucial.
Benefits of Wearing the Right Prescription
Wearing the right prescription helps you to see clearly and comfortably, reducing eye strain, squinting, and headaches—especially when reading, using screens, or driving. It also improves focus, depth perception, and overall visual comfort, helping to make day-to-day tasks easier.
For kids, it supports healthy visual development, and for adults, it helps maintain quality of life. If you have conditions like astigmatism or presbyopia, the right glasses prescription can make a big difference in clarity. Keeping your prescription up to date with regular eye exams is key to keeping your vision sharp.
Getting Your Unique Prescription
Preserving your sight means monitoring your eye health and remaining consistent with trips to your optometrist. A comprehensive eye exam helps determine your prescription and the vision correction levels your new glasses will need.
Refractive errors such as myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism, and presbyopia can be corrected with your new glasses and have you seeing clearly once again.
Different factors are tested during your eye exam to determine your prescription. Your optometrist will perform tests that will measure:
- Colour vision
- Visual field
- Alignment of eyes
- Sharpness of vision
- Eye muscle health and performance
Beyond determining your prescription, an eye exam is also crucial for detecting early signs of eye disease such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, and cataracts.
Once your exam has been completed, the fun part begins!
You’ll be able to choose from a variety of frames and lenses to match your style, a perfect combination of fashion and function.
Children’s Eye Exams
Eye exams aren’t just for adults! Children also need to maintain consistent eye exams to ensure their visual development is progressing smoothly. Building consistent vision care habits early can help your children carry those habits into adulthood.
Undiagnosed vision issues can lead to other problems such as:
- Difficulty learning
- Negative self-image
- Behavioural issues
- Delays in speech and language development
Following the exam, your children can also browse different frames to find their ideal fit!
Can the Wrong Glasses Cause Damage?
Your prescription glasses perform a very important function, which is helping you see clearly throughout the day. Your eyes are complex and sensitive, so it’s essential to make sure they’re comfortable and healthy.
However, you may be wondering if wearing the wrong glasses that don’t match your prescription can damage your eyes. The answer is no, but glasses that aren’t the correct prescription can lead to headaches, blurred vision, watery eyes, dizziness, and cause eyestrain.
These symptoms can interfere with your productivity and leave your eyes strained. Getting the proper prescription and wearing glasses that maximize your vision is vital. Your glasses aren’t hurting your eyes, but the wrong glasses are no longer correcting your vision.
This discomfort can be resolved with a trip to your optometrist for a comprehensive eye exam to get an updated prescription along with a new set of frames and lenses.
Children’s Glasses
For children, it’s crucial that they wear glasses with the correct prescription. Wearing the wrong glasses can accelerate the progression of myopia (nearsightedness) and affect other aspects of their lives, such as learning and classroom performance.
Your child’s vision is ever-changing and evolving. Consistent eye exams can help your optometrist monitor your child’s visual development and ensure that their prescription and visual aides keep up with their development and visual needs.
When Should You Update Your Prescription?
You should generally update your glasses prescription every 1 to 2 years, depending on your age, eye health, and whether you’re noticing changes in your vision. Blurry vision, eye strain, headaches, or trouble seeing clearly at certain distances are all signs that it might be time to visit your optometrist for a new prescription. Even if you’re not experiencing obvious symptoms, routine eye exams are important, as they help ensure your prescription is accurate and also allow your optometrist to check for any early signs of eye issues.
Prescription lenses don’t necessarily “expire,” but your eyes can change over time, meaning your old lenses might no longer give you the sharpest vision. For most adults, a prescription is considered valid for up to two years, while for kids, it’s typically valid for just one year as their eyes are still developing.
Getting the Right Fit
Your comfort and visual safety are key. That’s why ensuring that you’re wearing glasses with the correct prescription can help save you some stress and discomfort. An eye examination can determine your prescription, help you achieve clear vision, and prioritize your visual comfort. Book an appointment with your optometrist at West Coast Optical today to get your unique prescription and get glasses that fit!
